


Your Eyes Outshine the Town

by brandnewsoul



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Christmas Lights, Darcy/Steve Holiday Fic/Art Exchange, Established Relationship, F/M, Getting Lost
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-12
Updated: 2014-01-12
Packaged: 2018-01-08 11:10:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1131945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brandnewsoul/pseuds/brandnewsoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Steve wants to see some lights, Darcy's taking him to see some lights.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Eyes Outshine the Town

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Aenariasbookshelf, who wanted a story with Steve and Darcy driving around back roads somewhere looking at lights and listening to holiday music. 
> 
> I first heard about the lights in Dyker Heights in the book _Dash and Lily's Book of Dares_ , and the Girl Scouts of Suffolk County, New York, really do sponsor a light show--and they have [fun promo videos](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgau8h-HjBY&feature=share&list=UUM2_by2ajlen4FhrgWZumeA&index=2)! Hope you enjoy!

There are two types of people: those who, at the very least, enjoy Christmas, and those who all but come alive the second that radio stations switch over to an all-holiday format. Darcy Lewis is one of the latter, and reacts accordingly when, at three-thirty PM on November twenty-ninth, she hears the twinkly strains of "Christmas Wrapping" piping through the elevator speakers. By the time that she reaches the lobby, where Steve is waiting for her, she's all but walking on air.

"Oh _hell_ yeah, Christmas is _on_ ," she says, pumping her fist in the air. "Do you hear that? Not even two years working at Toys R Us during the holidays ruined Christmas music for me, but that was mostly because you couldn't hear anything over the sound of screaming kids and moms asking about the big toy of the season, but, you know! You have a favorite Christmas tune, Steve?"

The whole time, Steve's been watching her bounce up and down like an excited Pomeranian without batting an eye. Darcy loves that he acclimated to her brand of crazy so well. When she first met him, she'd admittedly been a little worried that she wouldn't get along with him and that he would find her obnoxious, uncouth, or some other SAT-worthy word for "annoying and possibly unhinged".

As the chorus of _merry Christmas, merry Christmas, couldn't miss this one this year_ begins to fade out, he shrugs. "I don't know. The music seemed more like background noise to me. I mean, everyone likes 'White Christmas'—it's the most done Christmas song of all time now, right?—but I've always liked the lights the most."

Darcy nods. "People have gotten _really_ crazy about lights. You know about that one neighborhood where the tour buses and everything—"

"Yeah, Dyker Heights."

"That place. And I thought that the St. Martin's house in my old neighborhood was bad."

He nods. "It's—" Darcy expects him to say _changed_ , because the word is a constant when it comes to Steve talking about the city. Sometimes it's surprise at seeing what's become of certain neighborhoods, and sometimes there's a touch of disappointment or bitterness to it.

So she's surprised when he says, "—really crowded, and the traffic's terrible, and there's so many people walking around that you can barely… what?"

"Nothing," Darcy says lightly. "It's cute how stoked you are about the Christmas lights."

He shrugs, and the bell above the door dings to announce that they've arrived at the ground floor. "What's Christmas without bright lights?" he says with a grin. "C'mon."

They go to grab lunch, and the entire time, little wisps of ideas are forming in Darcy's head. She's trying to listen to Steve as he talks about decidedly non-Christmas things (like the fact that Tony has refitted a Roomba and made it scale walls "just because", or how Clint seems to have suddenly adopted a dog with a fondness for pizza), but her mind keeps drifting to the thought of Christmas lights.

She decides to consult Google once she gets home.

\---------

Three days later, they're standing in front of her aunt's house in Bayside. It's five-twenty three and the sky's mostly dark, but there's a strip of a glorious shade of deep pink mixed with orange. It's a perfect sunset for what Darcy hopes will be the prelude to a perfect night. She feels around for the garage key in her coat pocket, and as they approach the door, she tells Steve to cover his eyes. "Hey, no peeking," she says, swatting at his hands as he spreads his fingers apart to steal a glance at what's waiting behind door number one. When she's certain that he's actually cooperating, she pulls the door up.

When Steve drops his hands after she says, "Okay, you can look now," she can't help but laugh as he stares at the vehicle in front of them. Even though he's wearing one of those ridiculous hats with earflaps, she can see one of his eyebrows arch upward in confusion.

"It's a minivan," he says in a flat voice.

"Yes it is," Darcy says as she presses the button on the power lock remote. "And because Aunt Molly is currently out of town, it's our mode of transporation for the evening." She bounces on her heels a little. "That's the surprise."

"What," Steve says with a grin, "Your great aunt being out of town?"

"Get in the car, you dork," she says with a sly grin.

She found out about the light show on Saturday night. It's out in Bayport and sponsored by the Girl Scouts: "Sadly, there will be no Thin Mints there," she adds. "But it's nice. I mean, there's other cars, of course, but if it's anything like the light show my mom used to take me to, they have an AM station you can tune the radio to, and there's always a tunnel that has some sort of optical illusion-type blinking… stop giving me that Skeptical Cap look."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Please. I don't even need to take my eyes off the road to know that you're giving me that 'my girlfriend is being rambly as hell' look. Trust me, by the time that we get through that light tunnel, you'll be a believer."

By the time that they get into town, the radio's tuned to the station that switches its format strictly to Christmas tunes staring on November first. The GPS sends them down the wrong street (or Darcy managed to miss a turn or three; who knows?), so a half hour later, they've gone in circles on circles, and Steve's threatened to throw the GPS out the window while Darcy shrieks about how there is _no way_ that the software and/or the satellites are so out of date that they could become this hopelessly lost, and that after tonight, she's so going to buy the new Stark model.

But on the plus side, they've already seen a few houses with yards completely packed with decorations, including the one that had several inflatable snow globes and a nativity scene that was dwarfed by the humungous star that hovered over it.

"That," Steve remarks, "shouldn't even count as a decoration."

"It's a driving hazard," Darcy moans. She had to flip the visor down just to get them past the house. "I don't even want to imagine what it would've been like if I had on my glasses. I think my eyes would've liquefied in their sockets."

She turns right, and gasps at the sight before her. "Hot damn, check that out!"

The yard facing them is covered in snow. Fake snow, yes, but that's irrelevant. The snow is there to add atmosphere, because the owners of this particular house have created an adorable, twinkly lit North Pole in their front yard. The path leading up to the front of Santa's Workshop is flanked by blinking candy canes. A barn with "REINDEER" on the side points an arrow at a window where a red circle blinks on and off, presumably to show that Rudolph is lying in wait. A Ferris wheel twirls and blinks blue and green, and elves seem to cartwheel their way across the expanse.

The only thing that Steve can say is, "Wow."

It was one thing to see his face light up when he talked about the lights on the day after Thanksgiving; it's another to see him look stoked to see this little scene on someone's lawn. Darcy steals a glance at the clock on the dashboard. She studied the website for the light show over and over, trying to ensure that the details would be embedded in her mind. It's five after seven right now, and the light show closes at nine. This neighborhood's been pretty good with the decorations, and it might be worth further examination.

"Question," she says as she flicks Steve on the shoulder. "How 'bout we check out the light show later this month, and just drive around out here for tonight?"

"You don't mind?" he asks. "What about the light tunnel?"

"Dude," she says. "The light tunnel's gonna be there whether or not we go tonight or not, unless you want to see it that bad now."

"Maybe someone around here's got a light tunnel," Steve says with a grin.

Darcy laughs. "We'll never know if we don't look, will we?" 


End file.
